Re: [Axiom-developer] Re: AMS Notices: Open Source Mathematical Software

[Bill Page]

On 11/26/07, M. Edward (Ed) Borasky <address@hidden> wrote:
>
> I'm saying:
>
> 1. Firefox is *not* better than IE 7 on the Windows platform for any
> reasonable definition of "better". In particular, the hype about Firefox
> being more secure than IE is unsubstantiated and cannot in fact be
> proven or falsified.
>

I disagree. I am not interested in security when I use a web browser.
I am interested in performance, compatibility and convenience. I think
Firefox is superior to IE 7 in all these respects. Security at the
level of the web browser is too late.

> 2. In a corporation or other accountability hierarchy, people aren't
> always free to experiment with potential improvements. In fact, the
> epidemic of malware, cyber-terrorism and other things of that ilk
> have led to very restrictive IT policies. Even if Firefox were better
> than IE, it would still face an uphill battle in this arena.
>

I think it is only short-sighted IT policies that lead to this situation.

> Are you saying that OpenOffice is "better" than Microsoft Office on any
> dimension other than price? :)
>

Yes. In our office we often use OpenOffice/StarOffice just to
"clean-up" documents created using Microsoft Word users. Where
possible I encourage people to use OpenOffice but most users are very
very conservative and will only use what they think they already know.

Regards,
Bill Page.